Where to from here?

The QMS has been at the heart of New Zealand’s fisheries management system for many years and through it sustainable catch limits have been set for key stocks.

Just over 20 years after its introduction, there are 97 species groups managed in the QMS, divided into 629 fishstocks. Research is done to determine the status of stocks against maximum sustainable yield (MSY) targets. This work is done on 85 stocks and 72 of these have been assessed as being at or near MSY-related target levels. These represent most of the main commercial stocks. Total allowable catch levels for the remaining 13 stocks have been set at levels that should enable them to rebuild. There are rebuild strategies in place for a number of fisheries, including some snapper, hoki, orange roughy and red cod stocks. If necessary, fisheries can be closed to allow them to recover, as has happened with the Challenger and Puysegur orange roughy fisheries and, most recently, west coast South Island orange roughy and Marlborough blue cod. Mostly, however, it is a matter of lowering the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) to ensure more fish are left in the water to breed.

Although MFish and fishers have learned a lot about how fish stocks behave and rebuild, and about the wider fisheries environment, up until now that knowledge has been sitting in different places.So a series of fisheries plans are being developed to bring this information together and help people get the best value from each fishery. The fisheries plan process involves the whole sector.

Value can mean:

• value to the country’s economy through smart management of fisheries cultural and traditional values for Ma-ori
• value to communities that catch and process fish
• recreational values for people who fish for food or fun
• the value people place on the aquatic environment increasing the monetary value of commercial catch.

There are currently eight Fisheries Plans Advisory Groups working on the following fisheries: Northland scallops, west coast North Island finfish, Gisborne/east coast rock lobster, Challenger finfish (Nelson/west coast South Island), southern shellfish, Fiordland paua, middle depth/deepwater, and highly migratory species.

Advisory groups are made up of customary, commercial and recreational fishers, environmental interests, and MFish staff. One of the first tasks is to review a stock’s current status and the way it is managed. The group will then develop objectives for the fishery, decide how the effectiveness of management will be measured and identify the services, such as research and enforcement, that are needed to meet those objectives.

The advisory group members discuss this work with other members of their sector, ensuring contributions come from a wide range of sources. When a plan is finished, a process that’s expected to take one to two years for each plan, it will go to the Minister of Fisheries for approval.